2010 May 13

Recently, the 40th anniversary of the transfer to Spain of the management of the Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex has been celebrated at Robledo de Chavela.

Within the scope of an agreement between the governments of Spain and the United States, in 1964 INTA and NASA signed an agreement for the operation and maintenance of Robledo’s facilities, stressing that the American technicians would train the Spanish staff of INTA, eventually transferring the management and technological responsibility to the Spanish agency.

This transfer of responsibilities was effective in the year of 1970, and during the 40 years that have gone by until now, first INTA and since 1992 INSA have been in charge of the management, operation and maintenance of the station, with such satisfactory results that have made possible the renewal of the original agreement until nowadays.

Among other people, the act was attended by William Gerstenmaier, Responsible for Space Operations, NASA; General Eugene L. Tattini, Associate Director, JPL; Anthony Carro, Representative of NASA, Spain; Jaime Denis Zambrana, General Manager, INTA, and Miguel Lens Astray, Executive Vice-President, INSA.